UP likely to chargesheet suspended SDM Durga

Ignoring the pressure from various quarters to revoke her suspension, the UP govt is likely to chargesheet suspended IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal for her supposed mishandling of a communally sensitive situation. Umesh Raghuvanshi reports.

Ignoring the pressure from various quarters to revoke her suspension, the Uttar Pradesh government is likely to chargesheet suspended IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal for her supposed mishandling of a communally sensitive situation.

"A chargesheet will be served to the IAS officer for demolishing the wall of a place of worship without following due procedures at a point when an alert had been issued to maintain communal harmony in view of the month of Ramzan and the movement of kanwarias (pilgrims who come walking from Haridwar, carrying holy water)," a senior IAS officer said.

"An inquiry will be instituted to probe her role if the state government is not satisfied with her reply to the chargesheet," said the officer, adding, "the decision to place her under suspension was purely administrative. It had no connection with her action against the mafia."

Nagpal, who had clamped down on illegal mining in Noida, was suspended barely 10 months after she got her first posting in the state.

The supposed demolition by Nagpal, sub-divisional magistrate of Gautam Buddha Nagar, took place on July 27.

The state government's move comes at a time when the Indian Civil and Administrative Service Association (central) has also asked the UP government to revoke her suspension.

"The Indian Civil and Administrative Service Association (central) urges the UP government to revoke the suspension of the young IAS officer to maintain the morale of honest officers," said association secretary Sanjay Bhus Reddy in a text message to acting chief secretary Alok Ranjan.

The matter has also reached the judiciary.

Social activist Nutan Thakur moved a petition before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court, praying direction to the central government, which recruits IAS officers and allots them cadres, to seek details about Nagpal's suspension and quash it if found illegal.